Multimillionaire Sen. Jon Corzine and his union-boss ex-girlfriend are such good friends that they still live in the same Hoboken building – two floors apart.
Corzine and the woman, communication workers head Carla Katz, once made beautiful music together, but are now only making headlines after it was reported that Corzine forgave a $475,000 loan he gave her so she could buy her ex-husband’s share of a Hunterdon County home.
Corzine and Katz are no longer romantically attached – but they do cross paths at the Hudson Tea Building, a 12-story, renovated loft-style building on the Hoboken waterfront.
Corzine yesterday insisted he now has no financial ties with Katz and said it’s “almost offensive” for Republicans to claim he’d have a conflict of interest in bargaining labor contracts.
“I have no financial ties and the relationship is over from a standpoint of close personal romantic, if you will, relationship,” he said during a taping of WCBS/Channel 2’s “Sunday Edition with Marcia Kramer,” which airs tomorrow.
Corzine bristled at Republican comparisons between his affair with Katz and that of disgraced ex-Gov. Jim McGreevey’s decision to give a male lover the job of state homeland security director.
“It is almost offensive that someone would charge an individual who, first of all, isn’t in my employ, isn’t a negotiator with me at this point in time, I no longer have a personal relationship with, and charge that somehow that’s corrupt,” Corzine said.
Meanwhile, Corzine reportedly sank $7 million into a firm owned and controlled by one of the state’s casino operators.
Corzine’s investment with Icahn Partners – a hedge fund headed by Carl Icahn – earned up to $100,000 by the end of last year, according to the Democrat’s financial-disclosure statement.
Corzine admitted that if he becomes governor, the holding could run afoul of a state law that restricts investing in gambling companies.
“If that is an issue – and I guess it would be – then it will be liquidated,” Corzine told The Newark Star-Ledger. “It would be no hesitation whatsoever to divest.”